Kandy International Film Festival
Darshana Godawatta
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Samuel
Holt |
The Kandy International Film Festival will take place at numerous
venues in Kandy from June 22 to 26. The inaugural event will be the
first international festival of its scale in Sri Lanka and will attract
filmmakers from around the world to participate. The festival will
feature 18 films (both documentary and narrative) mostly completed in
2010 and 2011. Most of the films are screened for the first time in Sri
Lanka, if not Asia. Included in the line up will be four Sri Lankan
narrative movies.
The festival is the vision of Samuel Holt, an American filmmaker with
strong Sri Lankan roots who spent much of his childhood in Sri Lanka. He
attended both Kandy International School and Trinity College.
“I have always felt Kandy as my second home. There is so much
creative energy in Kandy but there are few avenues to express it. We
hope the film festival and related programmes will inspire and enable
young people to pursue their artistic dreams. A dedicated team of Sri
Lankans in Colombo, Kandy and New York had been working for six months
to ensure the festival is a great success.” Holt said.
The festival will have a focus on South Asian films but films from
across the globe too will be represented.
“We have to complete the final selection of films, but it is fair to
say that we will have impressive groups. They all have done very well
this year and there are Asian premieres too. It is fantastic to think
that some of these films are screened only a handful of times in the
world and they will be available for Sri Lankans. At the moment people
here don’t have a chance to see these types of films in the theatre. It
will be a unique opportunity for them.”
He also said that it will be a chance for the Sri Lankan public to
interact with award winning Sri Lankan film directors. In addition to 20
screenings to be held in venues across Kandy, more special events are
planned including gala dinner on June 27. The festival will also consist
of special panel discussions on filmmaking and the craft of
storytelling. The panels will consist of successful SL film
personalities as well as invited international filmmakers. The festival
organizers are also hoping to hold some events at local schools. The
organizers will release the details of films, schedules and tickets will
be available in early June.
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